It: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

At 9:30 AM, downtown Derry floods for the first time since August 1958. Many of the old drains clog or cave in during the freak storm. Local men attempt to stem the flood with sandbags. Later that morning, they hear a giant ripping sound: the Standpipe has fallen. Only Andrew Keene saw it happen. Meanwhile, Richie and Bill are staring It down underground. Its mandibles open and close and Its one good eye looks at them. Bill realizes that It has Its own source of light, but it is flickering, as though It is losing power.

Bill moves in on It, which tries to tempt Bill by offering him more life or even to give his wife back. With a scream building up in him, Bill charges forward. He plunges his arm into the Spider, up to the shoulder. The spider lashes at them with Its legs, and Bill feels a leg cut him. Suddenly, he hears the sound of Its heart. He reaches his hands into It, seeking the source of the sound. Then, the heart is in the palms of Bill’s hands and he squeezes. There is one final shriek of pain while Its heart explodes. The Spider collapses on Its side, though Its legs are still quivering. Bill then hears a voice—the Voice of the Other—telling him that he did well. Bill cries out for Richie. He cannot find him and there is no response. Bill begins to weep.

At 10:00 AM, the steady vibration through Derry’s streets turns into “a rumbling roar.” Windows shatter and plaster ceilings falls. The statue of Paul Bunyan in front of the City Center collapses. It goes through the roof of the Kissing Bridge then hits the ground. At 10:02 AM, downtown Derry collapses. Most of the water from the ruptured Standpipe crosses Kansas Street and ends up in the Barrens, but lots of it rushes into the business district by way of Up-Mile Hill. Cracks open across the surface of Main Street, like gaping, hungry mouths. The sound of Derry’s collapse is like artillery fire.

Back underground, Bill tells Ben that he and Richie killed It. Ben shakes Richie, who is unconscious. In the darkness, they cannot see Richie awake, but they hear him go into his Pancho Vanilla voice. Richie asks Bill to hold on to him while he throws up. Ben cries out for Beverly, who still has Eddie’s head in her lap. Bill picks up his wife, Audra, who seems like a waxwork. The place is falling apart, and they have to escape. Beverly says that Eddie can stay. Ben agrees that this is where Eddie belongs now. They put Eddie down and Richie kisses his cheek. When they go out the door, it closes solidly behind them. Richie tells Bill that the mark on the door is gone.

At 10:30 AM, the glass corridor connecting the adult library to the Children’s Library explodes. The tunnel, which had so fascinated Ben Hanscom, is never replaced. It seemed to blow up for no apparent reason and no one was hurt—but the Derry storm otherwise killed 67 people and injured 320. After May 31, 1985, if one wanted to go from the Children’s Library to the adult library, one had to go outside and maybe put on a coat.

Richie offers to help Bill carry his wife as they work their way through the tunnel. The water rises. Bill is holding Audra again and is worried that he will have to “[float] her” so that they can continue on. The bottom of the tunnel is heaped with what feel like bricks. Ben calls out in astonishment—he has found the marquee to the Aladdin Theater! Bill then realizes that this means that the street has caved in. This also means that there has been another flood, given all of the water around them. He flounders ahead with Audra in his arms and the others following him. There are mini-mountains below them, threatening a broken ankle. Bill says that he thinks that most of downtown Derry is in the Canal and is being pushed down the Kenduskeag. Soon, it will all be out in the Atlantic Ocean, and good riddance for that.

Richie takes Audra back from Bill, and they pull themselves out of the sewer. A woman in the street points to the place where Bill’s head came up from underground. A police officer holds her back, calling her Mrs. Nelson and saying that it is not safe to be out in the street, which could collapse at any moment. Bill recognizes her as the woman whose sister would sometimes babysit him and George. He raises a hand to show that he is okay, and she raises one in response. He finds her presence comforting. A photographer with the Derry News snaps a picture of them coming out and the caption is entitled “Survivors.” Bill later cuts out the picture and tucks it into his wallet as a keepsake.

At 10:33 AM, the rain stops. The wind also lets up. The people of Derry, particularly Andrew Keene, are interviewed by the TV media to report on what they have seen. Seeing themselves on television talking about what happened in Derry makes the events seem more concrete and less insane.

Around this time, Richie flags down an ambulance for Audra. Bill says that he is going back to the Town House to sleep for about sixteen hours. Richie asks Beverly for a cigarette, but she says that she thinks she will quit again. Bill tells them that, alas, it is all over. While going to the corner of Upper Main and Point Street, they see a child in a red rainslicker and green rubber boots sailing a paper boat “along the brisk run of water in the gutter.” Bill smiles and steps forward. He thinks it is the boy with the skateboard—the one whose friend said that he saw Jaws in the Canal. Bill tells him that everything is all right now.

On August 10, 1958, the children come out of the sewer one-by-one at dusk. The storm is over, but the Kenduskeag River is still very high. Stanley moves away from the group. His face is blank and thoughtful. Bill watches as Stan picks up a Coke bottle and breaks its neck. Stan picks through the remains of glass and chooses a narrow wedge. Stan looks up at him and Bill understands—it is perfectly clear. Stan cuts both of his hands. There is pain, but not much. The sound of a whippoorwill is somewhere. Its call is cool and peaceful. They all cut their hands, too, and then join hands. Bill holds Beverly’s left hand while Ben holds her right. He can feel the warmth of her blood mixing with his own. Bill makes everyone swear that they will come back if It is not dead. They all swear. They stand there for a little longer, feeling the power of their circle and “the closed body that they make.”

At last, Ben drops his hands. He starts to say something, shakes his head, then walks away. The rest of the group follows him and starts to climb the embankment back up to Kansas Street. They then simply take leave of one another. When Bill thinks about it twenty-seven years later, he realizes that the entire group never did get together again. Bill is the last to leave the Barrens. As he climbs up and over the white fence, he looks down into the brush and sees the Barrens fill up with darkness. He thinks of how he never wants to play down there again. He finds the thought liberating.